Topic: Deserts

Supplementary material for use in lessons in the group of natural sciences (nature, biology, chemistry, geography, physics), additional classes, science clubs. It can serve as a resource for expanding knowledge, preparing students for science competitions.

Target group

5th‑grade students of elementary school (geography).

Core Curriculum

Grade V Geography

IV. Landscapes of the world: humid equatorial forest and temperate forest, savannah and steppe, hot and ice desert, taiga and tundra, Mediterranean, high altitude Himalayas; zonation and climatological vegetation in the world. Pupil:

3) presents the main features and compares the known landscapes of the world and recognizes them in descriptions, films and illustrations;

General aim of education

Students characterize the conditions prevailing in the hot desert.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• discuss climatic conditions prevailing in the hot desert;

• show the existence of a relationship between extremely low rainfall and a small amount of plants and animals in the desert;

• exchange threats to human health and life in the desert.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• large sheets of paper with a continental outline, glue, scissors, crayons.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• The teacher asks students to look in small magazines and on the Internet for small pictures of landscapes characteristic of the desert..

Introduction

• The teacher asks the chosen student to indicate and name the continents on the world map and describe the selected climate zone..

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

Realization

• The teacher asks students to read the abstract themselvest, paying particular attention to information about the desert landscape..

• Students are selected into groups. Each team receives a sheet of paper with an outline of the continents. Using Gallery 1. „The climate and the occurrence of hot deserts: Locations of hot deserts”, the students mark places of desert occurrence on posters. Posters give to the teacher..

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

• The teacher presents and discusses the interactive illustration. He then divides the students into groups and recommends that each of them carry out an in‑depth analysis of one of the points presented in the diagram, based on available sources of information (e.g. internet, atlas or encyclopedia). Students present the results of work in groups. Each team ends their presentation with the wording of the conclusions.

Summary

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

• The teacher chooses one student by random method and asks him or her to explain in own words the meaning of a given word or concept learned during the lesson.

Homework

• Develop a lap book containing issues learned during the lesson and bring your work to the next class.

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Deserts

In both hemispheres, there are special climatic conditions around the tropics. Apart from a short period of time, when the sun approaches the zenith at noon and rain can occur, there is almost constant drought here. During the day the sky is cloudless and the air temperature is as much as 50°C. No clouds and very dry air do not allow rainfall. During the night, heat is quickly released into the atmosphere, which is why just before sunrise the air temperature is often negative. A small amount of rainfall and very high air temperature cause rapid evaporation and desiccation of the ground to significant depths. The wind that is constantly blowing can create large sand dunes. From time to time, strongly heated air masses rise quickly, causing a pressure difference and a violent wind. This is how a sandstorm is created. In such conditions large areas are created almost devoid of vegetation called deserts. Slightly more plants are found in semi‑deserts.

In hot deserts from time to time (usually once a year, but sometimes once in a few years), heavy rain falls. Desert valleys are quickly filled with rapid water. The wide and winding rivers are created for a short time, and the water flowing in them changes the terrain. In places where water accumulates for longer, oases are formed. There are characterized by springs, wells and lush vegetation.

Conditions prevailing in a desert are extremely unfavorable, and even dangerous for human life and most organisms. However, you can survive in the desert. Some plants and animals have adapted to the conditions of hot deserts.To survive in the desert, people who often go through it have also adapted. First of all, you have to try to provide the body with enough water. You have to drink 6, and with a lot of physical effort, up to 10 liters of water a day.You should also take care to limit the loss of water through the skin. For this purpose, it is necessary to cover the head and loose, light, preferably cotton clothing covering the whole body (cotton permeates the air, and thus allows heat to pass away from the skin). Desert people like the Berbers are transporting goods across the desert. They use pack animals for this purpose: horses or drought‑resistant camels. They wander the desert in caravans created for safety. A lone journey through the desert is in fact very dangerous.

• Hot deserts are located near tropics.

• The desert are without vegetation with a stony, gravel or sandy foundation.

• In the hot deserts there are large daily temperature fluctuations and very low humidity.